Guarding an Angel
by Lgbabyblu
Summary: Left not quite so alone by the bodies of her dead parents, the Cullens come to the aid of a young girl who accidentally stumbles upon two hungry nomads. Not knowing what their actions may bring, the Cullens indirectly start a war as the hunt begins.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note**: First of all, I don't own this story (obviously)! All the characters are Stephanie Meyer's wonderful creation with some tweak's from my imagination. This is my first in this category, but I'm very rusty in writing, so hope it is okay!_

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Jasper

The wind was whistling against the trees, as the sound of song birds turned into the caw of crows.

Something was terribly wrong. He could feel it before he could sense it.

Fear. Anger. Sorrow.

Someone was near. He could definitely feel it now as his extra senses bombarded him with the strong mix of emotions. Actually, it felt like more than just someone was near. He could feel another being who was close-by, but the emotions of this second person or entities was fairly hostile.

Jasper scanned his surroundings, turning his head to make eye-contact with Emmett who had accompanied him into the forest on a "hiking-trip," which was only a cover to hide their need to feed on large animals as a way to quench their blood-thirst due to being a vampire.

"_Emmett, you smell that?"_ Jasper spoke, using his mind to communicate with his non-blood related brother, knowing for sure that Emmett couldn't have missed the smell. A human or more than one human was near-by and he, she or they were injured.

Emmett nodded in response, narrowing his eyes with thirst, throat throbbing mercilessly.

As controlled as Emmet and himself may seem around humans, it was always a struggle for their kind who chose a different path from normal, human killing vampires. Both of them were part of the Cullen clan who viewed themselves as a family-unit striving for humanity. Other than their father-figure, Carlisle, who had spent centuries perfecting his immunity to the smell of blood through medicine, the rest of the clan still had some difficulties with abstinence. It was truly like trying to cage up a monster without a lock, where pure will-power was the only thing holding the gate of the cage closed.

"_Should we check it out?"_ Emmett asked, trying hard not to breathe so that the thirst wouldn't be as strong. His face was scrunched up in self-restraint.

"_I don't know, but I have a strong feeling that we need do something. I feel something is incredibly wrong." _Jasper said as he concentrated for a second around the emotions where all three emotions, fear, anger and sorrow, were fighting with one another to take the upper-hand, but all three were equally as powerful. _"There are a lot of negative emotions. I need to know what is going on."_ Jasper said with a distant look in the direction of the emotions. He had made up his mind. He had to help. Luckily, it looked like Emmett was thinking the same thing. Carlisle's teachings were definitely rubbing off on them.

He and Emmett sprinted toward the cause of their thirst, but most importantly, the source of the anguish. It became eerily quiet, so quiet that it was unnatural. The surroundings must have felt the disturbance too, deciding to go silent in response to what was to come. That was when they heard the voice. The voice was small and insignificant, but it held the strength of a person beyond their years. That was when they also sensed a movement, too fast to be a human, and the strong stench of fresh blood.

"Hello friend. Have you come in need of a snack?" A patronizing voice said, as a tall, pale figure stopped abruptly, but gracefully in front of him and Emmett. His hair was blond and slicked back into a pony-tail. His clothes revealed that he was a nomad, with his shirt unbuttoned, revealing his glistening vampire skin.

Out of the corner of his eyes, another figure landed lightly onto her feet from above, hair flailing like fire raging over a spilled canister of gasoline.

"Don't be so rude James. We must introduce ourselves," the woman said with a smirk on her devious face. "My name is Veronica," she said, walking slowly towards her partner, "and this is James," she said, pointing towards her brooding mate.

Emmett glared at the two, probably itching for a fight.

Jasper himself grimaced, seeing immediately that a killing had been committed here, as he looked upon the two dead bodies, one male and one female, and at the looks of it, in their early or mid-twenties. It was such a waste. "I'm Jasper and this is Emmett," he said, nodding toward his bulky brother. "We're really sorry, we were just passing by," Jasper said, trying to pacify the situation before it turned aggressive. The problem was that he couldn't shake the feelings that he still felt being emitted even stronger than before. That was when he noticed a small movement from deep within a bush, wedged in between a thick tree and a boulder the size of a Volkswagen. His eyes immediately locked onto two big, brown, doe-like eyes of a young child, who couldn't have been more than four or five years old. He couldn't help from gasping in shock at the realization of what had just occurred.

"Don't come any closer you monster," the child yelled as she backed up closer to the tree, but still standing her ground with angry, but fearful eyes.

"Ahhh…. so that's where you were hiding," James said as if he didn't already know, slowly tracing his teeth with his tongue. "The main course was okay, but I'm still hungry for dessert," he said with a glint of wickedness in his eyes and his twisted grin.

Right as James was ready to pounce on the defenseless child, Emmett and Jasper leapt in front of the aggressor, stopping James from going any further.

"I'm sorry, we were just passing," Jasper said with more purpose to his voice, standing his ground to protect the child.

Emmett immediately scooped the child into his arms, holding her protectively to his chest with an iron vice-grip.

The child didn't seem to object, sensing that her protectors were truly there to help her instead of trying to hurt her.

Victoria and James snarled, crouching down low as they revealed their sharp fangs to the two who had interrupted their feeding.

"Are you seriously going to try to save this human?" Victoria laughed in a menacing tone. "We already made a good meal of her guardians. She has no one left," she said as she glared at the two of them.

It was a very tense moment as the two pairs stared angrily at one another. The seconds that they were standing there felt like hours, and Jasper knew he had to get the child away from the danger as fast as possible, because he could feel the increasing fury from the two drifters. He tried to emit a feeling of calm towards the nomads, and it seemed to ease the situation a bit.

"Let us worry about her safety," Emmett said while grinding his teeth. "She is just a child. Leave her be," he added as he held the child close to him, the child who had yet to make another sound, seeming content to peek over Emmett's large arm every few seconds to glare at the two people who killed her parents.

"You can't fight the both of us," James sneered, walking in a deliberate semi-circle to trap the two trespassers.

Jasper frowned, knowing the truth of the situation was not in his and Emmett's favor.

"Oh yes they can with the help of us," a voice of chiming bells said, as the love of his life leapt next to him. Alice turned to him, smiling her charming smile as she held her hands firmly on her hips. Alice and Jasper both shared a knowing look that only meant that she saw what had transpired through her gift of seeing the future, and had brought help.

That was when Jasper noticed another familiar presence as another one of his brothers, Edward, stepped out of the shadows to the stand on the other side of him, creating an unbreakable wall in front of Emmett and the small, brown haired child.

"As I said, we don't want any trouble. We were just passing," Jasper repeated for the third time, this time with a confident smirk on his face as he watched the nomads back away with a furious look.

"You won't regret this. I will find that little, pathetic human again when you bore of her, and she will be the taste of glory," James sneered again, holding his stance for another quick second, before turning abruptly away, nodding at Victoria. They both took off in the opposite direction of the Cullens, knowing that the hand had turned on them.

Jasper and Emmett took a deep breath and breathed out in relief that it was over.

"BOOYAH!" Emmett laughed in a booming voice, immediately causing the young girl to scream out in terror.

The young girl instantly began to try to get out of Emmett's grip, which Emmett easily let her down gently. She backed up quickly, falling on her behind in her haste to flee the large group in front of her.

Jasper immediately felt the anguish, fear and confusion from the young girl, and it hit him like a train barreling into him.

"Who are you?" She yelled as she clawed her way to her dead parents, tears streaming down her tortured eyes.

Jasper felt the grief from the young girl and tried to emit a feeling of calm and lethargy towards the frightened child who instantly began to fall tired onto her father's still arm. "It's alright young one. You can sleep now," he said soothing as he picked the child into his arms. "We won't let anything happen to you," Jasper continued with a reassuring Southern accent. "I promise," he said at last and she was asleep.

"What are we going to do with her?" Emmett asked as he crossed his arms in a wide stance, his face contemplating the situation at hand.

"You know he's never going to stop hunting her," Edward said quietly with a serious look on his face. "I looked into his mind. He's a tracker. We just gave him the opportunity to start one of the most challenging hunts he has ever had, and he's not going to stop until he wins," he said in disturbed tone, "or we die."

"We'll win," Jasper said with determination in his voice. He knew he couldn't hand her over. Something about this girl was special, but even so, she was just a child.

"Oh yah we will!" Emmett added, as Alice slapped him in the arm for being loud again.

Edward walked closer to the Jasper and the young girl, brushing a tear away from her eyes. "Whoever you are little mystery child, I hope you are worth the war that has just started over you."

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_**Author's Note**: Hope you enjoyed this story! Please write a review with whatever comments you want. I really don't care. Constructive criticism is nice :D I'm fairly bored this winter, so I might just update very quickly with the right amount of motivation *wink wink* XD Thanks for reading and I really hope to continue, but we'll see how this goes. _


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note**: Again, I don't own the characters, etc. It's all the wonderful work of Stephanie Meyers. Anyways, I told you I'm fairly bored and updates will come pretty quickly. I didn't get as much feed back as I would've liked, but then again it has only been a day. Hope you enjoy this quick update for the lovely people who sent me a nice review :D THANX VERY MUCH!!! AND ENJOY!!!_

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Edward

We had slowly begun moving away from the catastrophe after burying the two bodies in a make-shift grave, away from any wild life that might wander their way. Bella would've liked that. "Isabella…_Bella,"_ Edward said again in his head, finding the shorter version more to his liking. They had found that this was her name and her parents were Renee and Charlie Swan. Their names were etched in scrawling handwriting, onto a photo of the young couple and their child. It was found hidden inside Charlie's wallet in his jacket pocket. "_Charlie, Renee and Isabella (2009),_" Edward read again from the back while turning the photo back to the picture of the smiling family. It was a picture of their last Christmas, which inevitably and literally was their last, at least for the two elder humans of the three. There was no mistaking that there was much love and happiness within this small family that was shattered by a mid-afternoon stroll through the woods.

"What are we going to do with her," Jasper asked, while walking along side his brothers and sisters. "We can't possibly keep her safe forever. She needs a life, but you said so yourself, she's going to die if we don't protect her," he said, directing the statement to Edward.

"I don't know. Maybe Carlisle will know what's best to do," Edward said with a pensive look on his face. He felt a need to protect the child as best as he could, but he could hear the doubts from the others, as well as his own. Bella knew too much already, and that was against the number one rule that all of their kind must abide by – _Remain Hidden_.

"They aren't going to be back for a while, but I can see that they are planning something," Alice said with eyes closed, slowly rubbed her temples slowly with her fingers. She immediately opened her eyes again, already in all smiles from what she saw. "_They are going to be ecstatic, shocked but very ecstatic about the little one_. _We will be the best of friends,_" Edward heard Alice think with his extra senses.

They quickly ran with the child, with Alice more dancing than running, hand in hand with Jasper, and Emmett barreling through the thick bushes. Running was like second nature to them, never losing its thrill, even at the ease of it. Once they reached the sprawling white house they called their home, all of them waited.

"Carlisle. Esme. Rosalie." Edward spoke with no more than a mere whisper, calling for their adoptive mother and father figures, and sister.

It wasn't even a second before Carlisle, Esme and Rosalie appeared in the living room, coming from their respected rooms. The look on their faces was shock as they tried to gauge what was going on.

Edward swiftly explained what had occurred to the young girl and her parents without speaking a word. He then turned his eyes to his family, watching to see their reactions. Esme and Rosalie looked utterly in love with the child and he could hear from their thoughts that they wanted to keep her. Carlisle looked a little hesitant, and he knew it was because Carlisle was afraid of hurting the human, but he could tell that Carlisle had also made up his mind to protect the child. It was a self-less trait that had brought the family together. Carlisle couldn't abandon one who needs help.

"So it's settled." Jasper said in a calming voice. "We are keeping her here until we know for sure that she is safe from Victoria and James," saying it with such fierceness and protectiveness, being the first one to have spotted Bella, and her strong emotions.

Rosalie and Alice looked thrilled, their face lighting up, overjoyed by a little change in their monotonous lives.

"Oh! I can't wait to buy her tons of clothes!" Alice squealed in delight, her obvious interest in fashion getting ahead of her. She already begun to thick of thousands of outfits to dress Bella in, calculating how she was going to shift around the rooms so that Bella could have her own room and closet while living with them.

Rosalie on the other hand didn't mind what the young girl was going to wear, only overjoyed that she was going to finally have one of her wishes full-filled, to raise a child.

Edward walked Bella to their living room couch, laying the exhausted child on the couch, and then covered by the thick jacket that he didn't need. "I think we should wait for her to wake up to see how she feels about this," he said softly, trying hard not to wake her up.

"Poor little thing." Esme said in a sympathetic voice, her hand hovering over the sleeping child. Esme has always been very compassionate and kindhearted, and her adoption of the others as her children was a testament of her warm character.

"Let her sleep," Jasper said as he sat in on a separate couch, his eyes never leaving Bella's sleeping form. "She's going to have a rough time when she awakens. This is probably going to be her only time of peace."

Everyone gave Bella a last glance before scattering to do their own business around the house, never leaving far enough to be out of hearing range of Bella's breathing.

It wasn't long before a heart-wrenching scream was heard from the living room, and Edward wasn't far from the sound, already seeing Jasper at the child's side, having never left the couch when everyone else had left to their own spaces.

"Mommy!" Bella screamed, thrashing about on the couch, kicking half of her make-shift blanket off of her body. "Stop it you monster! Stop kurting my mommy and daddy! Stop it!" she screamed, curling up on herself as laid in a fetal position on the couch, eyes slowly opening to look at her surroundings.

By then, all the Cullens had gathered in the living room, unsure if they should come any closer, in fear of scaring the child more than necessary.

Jasper on the other hand sat close to the child, stroking her shoulder while emitting calmness to the child. "It's alright. They are gone. We won't hurt you Bella." Jasper whispered in a soothing voice which seemed to be working.

Edward glowered, not sure if Jasper of all people should be so close to the young girl, being that Jasper was the newest member to their lifestyle. Bella turned to look at each of their faces, stopping last on his, her big, brown eyes looking at him with confusion. That was when it struck him. He couldn't hear her thoughts. He stood still, staring at the child with a look of shock and bewilderment. No one has ever challenged his powers before, and for once, the murmur of random thoughts stopped as he looked into her eyes.

"I can't read her," Edward said in a mystified voice, low enough that only his family could pick up. They all looked at him, just as baffled.

"Who are you? How do you know my name? Where are my mommy and daddy?" Bella listed off, her eyes dropping in grief and disappointment as she couldn't find the ones who she was looking for. She paused for a few seconds before opening her mouth again, "They're dead aren't they? Just like grandma." She held on, her voice filled with sorrow. She looked up into Jasper's eyes, waiting for the confirmation in words.

Jasper looked away, wincing at the apparent pain it was causing him to feel the child's heartache, before looking at her face again. "Yes darling. Your parents passed away," he said pausing.

"But you can stay here as long as you like, so don't fret." Esme said in a mothering tone, taking the hand of the child.

Poor thing didn't even notice how cold Esme's hands were, as she stared vacantly, her face holding an expression no child should have to hold. Bella nodded quietly, curling up on herself, resting her head on a scrunched up sleeve of his jacket, and gripping tightly onto the other.

Edward only wished he could know what she was thinking, although he could probably gather from her blank face, but her eyes told more of her suffering than she wasn't letting on.

"Just sleep Bella," Esme said quietly, stroking Bella's hair back. "Everything will be much better tomorrow, I promise," she cooed as Jasper sent out a wave of lethargy and tranquility so that Bella could once again rest.

Edward looked at his family, and back at Bella, hoping tomorrow indeed would be a better day for the perplexing child.

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_**Author's Note**: Hope you all enjoyed that! Yeah... its a little depressing and slow, but hey :) How are people supposed to build up the story without some boredom now and again. Later chapters will hold more bonding time as Bella wakes up, and definitely some more action once we see what Victoria and James are up to._

_Again, please review :D Makes me happy to know if people are actually enjoying my stories. Reviews really do make for faster updates XD Thanx again!_


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